Caution Alert To Investors Amid Rising AI-Led Scams

New Delhi: Online brokerage firm Zerodha’s co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath asked people to safeguard themselves, even as financial frauds are rising in India.

“The past nine months alone have had scams worth Rs11,000 crore!’ Kamath shared in a post on X, along with the news of a Bengaluru-based techie, who lost nearly Rs91 lakh in a stock market scam.

“The trend of these frauds is increasing,” he noted. Further, Kamath said this is expected to increase significantly when fraudsters begin using artificial intelligence (AI).

“I dread to think what it will be like once the fraudsters use AI.”

He also shared a small, but crucial step that can prevent people from falling prey to such scams. He advised people to spot and avoid scam groups by changing privacy settings on popular messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.

“One thing you can do to protect yourself is change the settings on your WhatsApp and Telegram so strangers can’t add you to groups,” Kamath said. He also shared step-by-step guidance on how to implement the changes.

By changing the setting WhatsApp users can ensure only their contacts can add them to WhatsApp groups.

Till September this year, Indians have suffered cyber fraud losses amounting to Rs11,333 crore in the first nine months of 2024, according to a recent report from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), a division of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Of these, stock trading scams accounted for the highest losses (Rs4,636 crore), followed by investment-related scams (Rs3,216 crore). India has also recently witnessed a spike in “digital arrest” frauds. The report showed that it led to losses of Rs1,616 crore.

Financial fraud complaints can be reported through helpline number 1930 or on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal.